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<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span
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toeslist@yahoogroups.com [mailto:toeslist@yahoogroups.com] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Riaz
Tayob<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Sunday, May 02, 2010 11:59 AM<br>
<b>Subject:</b> [toeslist] "Collateralized Fish Obligations? Fishery
Management And Catch Shares<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<br>
"Collateralized Fish Obligations? Fishery Management And Catch Shares<br>
<br>
Sunday 02 May 2010<br>
<br>
by: Christine Shearer, t r u t h o u t | Report<br>
<br>
photo<br>
(Photo: nurpax)<br>
<br>
A program promoted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and
Environmental Defense Fund aims to address overfishing, but will small
fishermen get squeezed out of the process?<br>
<br>
Multiple studies suggest our world's oceans are being overfished. While
alarming, such studies often eclipse successful examples of sustainable fishing
practices, such as Oregon's Port Orford Ocean Resource Team (POORT). This
community-based organization focuses on both healthy fish stocks and the
economic viability of the town, where operators of small fishing boats work
alongside scientists and researchers to ensure sustainable fishing methods.<br>
<br>
Rather than strengthen and expand efforts like Port Orford, however, fishermen
say the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is strongly
pushing a different program to address overfishing: the privatization of the
seas through "catch shares."<br>
<br>
Proposed years ago by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), of which NOAA head
Dr. Jane Lubchenco served as vice-chair, and supported by former President
George W. Bush, catch shares is a management program in which fishermen or
investors buy, sell, or trade shares of total fish catch limits, also known as
individual tradable quotas (ITQ). The shares become a permit, issued for a
fixed period, which is renewed if not revoked, limited, or modified. NOAA would
like the program to be national, and is pushing for its implementation in New
England fisheries starting May 1.<br>
<br>
According to EDF's website, the program is designed to spur fishermen to
maximize the value of their share, rather than capture the most fish they can,
a neoclassical conception of human nature known as the "tragedy of the
commons". And "as the fishery becomes more efficient, fewer boats and
gear are needed and seasons lengthen."<br>
<br>
Fewer boats, however, does not necessarily mean less fish, but could mean more
commercial consolidation and fewer fishermen and fishing communities. Indeed,
critics fear that catch shares may permanently transform our national fish
stocks into a tightly controlled financial trading scheme dominated by
investors and industrial seafood producers. Ironically, since catch shares are
often allocated based on historic catch levels, smaller, more sustainable
fishers are initially eligible for fewer shares than large commercial
fisheries.<br>
<br>
Equally controversial is its advocate, EDF, an organization that has promoted
using private investors to address environmental problems. Its board of
trustees consists of directors and investors of private equity firms, capital
management firms, and large financial institutions like Morgan Stanley that
stand to profit from the transformation of natural resources into tradable
market assets. According to journalist Richard Gaines, EDF's Vice President
David Festa has been urging institutional investors to buy shares of New
England groundfish, touting a projected 400 percent return on investment based
on experiences with catch shares in other fisheries.<br>
<br>
Indeed, evaluation of existing ITQ fisheries suggest reason for smaller-scale
fishermen to be concerned. According to a study by Ecotrust Canada, a group
that promotes community-based eco-management, the conversion of British
Columbia fisheries into ITQ markets has encouraged speculative buying and
leasing of quotas by "armchair" fishermen and investors, driving up
business costs for working fishermen.<br>
<br>
In Alaska, NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service found that, after
implementation of catch shares, the number of persons holding halibut quota
shares in small Gulf of Alaska communities dropped by 46% from 1995 to 2004.
Most alarmingly, in Iceland quota shares became part of mixed-investment
portfolios containing mortgage-based derivatives, which are now part of that
country's toxic assets. The program was so economically disastrous for small
fishermen that the United Nations Human Rights Commission declared it illegal;
the Icelandic government is considering altering the program, but must first
buy back the now privatized catch shares from investors.<br>
<br>
Many fishermen are therefore opposed to the push by NOAA to implement this
program on a national level. Maine fisherwoman Mary Beth de Poutiloff questions
who catch shares really benefit: "The small boat family fleet does less
harm to the resources and the environment, and our money supports coastal
communities. Why is NOAA favoring huge, corporate fleets while the small boats
are practicing sustainable fishing?"<br>
<br>
EDF senior scientist Rod Fujita, however, says that if fishermen are active in
shaping catch shares regulations, the program can actually work to their
benefit. "A lot of catch shares are built on the idea that those with the
biggest catch history get the biggest shares, but it doesn't have to be that
way. There is a very strong argument to be made that the majority of catch
shares should go to the best stewards of the environment, regardless of how
much fish they catch, because some fishermen choose to remain small because of
their values. And they should be rewarded for their stewardship behavior rather
than punished, and catch shares can be built to accommodate that."<br>
<br>
Fishermen, however, say they have historically had little power in shaping
fishery regulations. And many have had a rocky relationship with NOAA, which
recently suffered further blows due to allegations of unjust fishing fines by
the agency and the shredding of NOAA documents in the wake of an investigation
into the fines, costing Dale Jones his job as NOAA director. Additionally not
helping matters is that catch shares will siphon away $10.5 million from
cooperative fishery research toward implementation of the $54 million NOAA
program, including funding for fish monitoring and observer data that local
fishermen say often excludes their input.<br>
<br>
POORT Executive Director Leesa Cobb wonders why the funding is being so focused
on only one management tool: "It seems disingenuous for NOAA to say that
they understand catch shares is only one tool, and then NOAA in turn allocates
$54 million to exclusively develop catch shares. NOAA is not offering this funding
to help (fishery) councils decide how to best manage for sustainable fisheries,
they are only providing this money for catch shares."<br>
<br>
More broadly, many fishermen are concerned that catch shares are vulnerable to
the consolidation of quotas by large commercial fisheries and, potentially,
financial speculators, squeezing out smaller fishermen that cannot afford to
compete. The effect would be not only financial speculation and possible
inflation of fish and fishing prices but also the further erosion of our
country's shrinking ties to generations of more ecologically-based ways of
living, much like small-scale farmers crowded out by large agri-business.<br>
<br>
Fisherwoman Rhonda Maker said that, based on her experience with catch shares
in Alaska, once the program is implemented, "fishing jobs become scarcer,
with little or no chance for new fishermen to advance beyond deckhand. Because
the rights to the fish are consolidated outside of local communities, profits
pass by rather than into local economies."<br>
<br>
Indeed, some congressional members are expressing alarm at NOAA's rush to
implement catch shares. At a March 2010 hearing on catch shares by the US House
Subcommittee on Insular Affairs, Oceans and Wildlife, Congressman Peter DeFazio
(D-Oregon) laid out his concerns with the program: "The last thing I want
is Goldman Sachs buying up all the shares of a fishery in three years, and
(having) derivatives of fishery shares being sold on Wall Street. I don't think
(NOAA management) has a clue."<br>
<br>
To prevent such market consolidation and financialization, community-based
environmental organizations advocate that catch shares be modified or
complemented with broader marine management "tool kits," tailoring
regulations to specific communities and fisheries to avoid monopolization and
overfishing, and helping small, remaining fisheries survive and grow. Ecotrust
proposes strengthening community fisheries, further integrating them as fishery
co-managers and, where catch shares are implemented, having transparent quota
share trading and direct allocation of some quota shares to community entities.<br>
<br>
Taking a cue from the lessons of Iceland, Food and Water Watch also supports
holding some quota off the market to allocate to vulnerable coastal
communities, to avoid the buying up of quotas by industrialized seafood
production at the expense of more sustainable and local seafood producers.<br>
<br>
EDF's Rod Fujita agrees that catch shares should be designed and implemented
thoughtfully. "If that is a social value - you want to preserve the social
value of the fishery and you don't want outside investment - then you can set
up catch shares to preserve those values."<br>
<br>
POORT Executive Director Leesa Cobb, however, says NOAA's push for catch shares
has eclipsed discussion of and support for other management tools.
"Unfortunately, the catch share campaign has drowned out all other ideas
and approaches to fisheries management. Another approach, community-based
fisheries management, has gotten a lot less attention even though it offers a
lot of benefits, particularly an enhanced level of stewardship for ocean
resources among community participants."<br>
<br>
Mary Beth de Poutiloff said that rather than manage the ocean as a trust, catch
shares encourages it to be viewed as just another stock market. "This is
water real estate." <br>
<br>
Creative Commons License<br>
This work by Truthout is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License."<br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.truthout.org/collateralized-fish-obligations59079">http://www.truthout.org/collateralized-fish-obligations59079</a><br>
<br>
<a href="http://snipurl.com/vy8kn">http://snipurl.com/vy8kn</a><br
clear=all>
<br>
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